Winning over voters in a popularity contest is never going to be easy for the GOP nominee, but if he can demonstrate the ability to be president — to convince voters it’s a role he can play, and seem serious and substantive — he will go a ways toward his goal of changing the race’s current arc.

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I'm just amazed at the amount of commentary that assumes the race is over. John Kerry came off the ropes with a strong first debate in 2004. It's easy to imagine, this time tomorrow, that the Panic Virus will transfer from Republicans to Democrats as they wonder how Romney managed to look so relatable.

Dylan Byers notices that a few liberal RINOs dismissed the Drudge tape of that Obama speech that the media already covered five years ago.

"What’s the ‘So what’ of this video? I don’t think it’s going to really go anywhere,” Republican Rep. Allen West said on Fox News.

“I don’t think this particular speech is definitive," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, though he added that it was at least a "reminder" of Obama's "pattern of dishonesty."

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Of course, the fact that the Liberal Drive-By Media is ignoring the tape proves Drudge's point, no matter what some squish like Allen West thinks.